1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a single earpiece Headphone or Earphone that may be used with both monaural and stereo audio devices without the use of a switch or an adapter. More particularly, the present invention provides listeners with the ability to hear both stereo audio channels mixed together in a single earpiece when plugged into a three-conductor jack of a stereo system.
2. Background of the Invention
Existing Headphones and Earphones that are used for listening to stereo audio are designed with two separate earpieces, each of which individually employ integrated speaker elements that drive audio into a listener's ears in such a way that the listener can differentiate the audio in each ear. Nearly all commercially available audio content, including books on tape, radio and television broadcasts, movies and music are all being formatted in stereo, offering sufficient separation in the left and right audio channels to enable the listener to hear the audio as if they were hearing it live with their own two ears. Nearly all types of commercially made audio players, including CD-Players, DVD-Players, radios, computers, MP-3 players, cellular phones and a wide variety of personal audio players all are equipped with stereo circuits to play the two audio channels into stereo speakers, stereo headphones and stereo earphones.
People with unilateral hearing loss (single sided deafness/SSD) can hear normally (or better) in one ear, but have trouble hearing out of the other ear. Approximately 50,000 people each year are diagnosed with some form of single sided deafness. Over 31.5 million Americans suffer from hearing loss. That's one out of every ten people and one out of every four people over 65. These individuals are extremely frustrated with their limited ability to hear the content from both of the stereo audio channels. As a consequence, many listeners with SSD often use only one of the two earpieces of a stereo earphone and they miss some of the instruments or vocals in most of the audio content that has been designed for separation the kind of music which comes with full stereo enjoyment. A small number of hearing impaired individuals have found ways to convert their favorite MP-3 audio recordings into monaural format using digital mixing features that exist in some audio software programs, however this takes a lot of time and work to convert song after song so that their music collection can be heard without missing any content.
Some individuals with single sided deafness have opted to use a hardware solution, by inserting a stereo-to-mono adapter inline with a mono headphone or earphone. Unfortunately, most stereo-to-mono adapters are problematic because the earphone cord and adapter stick out like an extra appendage that will often snag on clothing or other objects and can easily damage the device they are plugged into to the point that the adapter, earphone and audio player connectors are easily snapped off and damage the audio player jack in the process. Thus, many people with a single ear hearing impairment often just make do with a standard stereo earphone, and only listen to one of the two available audio channels.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,268 B addresses the need for a headphone that will enable use with stereo or mono circuits, however the invention described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,268 B utilizes two earpieces and offers no provision for mixing the stereo channels so the headphones will not be beneficial to those who have single-sided deafness.
The prior art utilizes a sensing circuit to enable connectivity to either a mono or stereo circuit, whereas my design is simple and does not involve the use of any type of sensing circuitry. Therefore the headphones and earphones of the present invention can be made with fewer parts and will cost less to build and because it utilizes fewer parts, there is less that can go wrong or fail over time.